Arizona’s Quality ConnectionsTo Make $5M In Reman Toner Sales

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Arizona's Quality ConnectionsTo Make $5M In Reman Toner Sales
Flagstaff-based Quality Connections makes connection with Arizona
By SUZANNE ADAMS-OCKRASSA Sun Staff Reporter

Quality Connections, one of Flagstaff’s leading employers of the disabled and disadvantaged, has won a sole-supplier contract to supply the State of Arizona with refurbished laser toner cartridges. 

The contract is expected to bring the company nearly $5 million annually in sales and could include additional sales to cities, counties and schools through the state’s co-op program, said Doug Arnett, office director. 

Approximately half a million of that total will be sales of refurbished laser cartridges. 

Quality Connections is a nonprofit organization that provides refurbished cartridges to Coconino County as well as hundreds of other customers online at QCoffice.com. 

It also offers a variety of 100,000 other office supplies at the site. 

The company has provided refurbished cartridges to Arizona for the last seven or eight years through the state’s set-aside contracting program, he said. 

The program gives companies that provide jobs or job training for people with disabilities, the disadvantaged or the incarcerated special consideration for state contracts. 

Quality Connections offers a variety of residential and day treatment, vocational and employment services for people with disabilities. 

“In doing so we create more possibilities for people who need it.” Arnett said. “Most states and the federal government have set-aside contract programs like this.” 

The difference with this set-aside contract is that it makes Quality Connections the sole provider of  refurbished laser cartridges to state offices, he said. The state has the option to renew the contract every year for up to five years. 

“I think this is the first such set-aside contract in the state,” Arnett said. “Our challenge is to get more state offices using these refurbished cartridges.”

Quality Connections currently offers 40 different types of brand-name refurbished printer cartridges, he said. 

“And we’re adding more to the list. We’ve got four new lines going in,” Arnett said. 

They also plan to add around 20 new jobs. It currently employees around 100 people and hopes to add an office in the Phoenix area soon. 

Most of the employees work for the company for only a short time, he said. The goal of the company is to assess a client’s skills and then provide them with the training and help they need to hold a professional job. 

Another part of Quality Connections’ mission is to promote environmentally sustainable products, such as refurbished toner cartridges and the recycling of electronics.

“It takes about three and a half quarts of oil to create one toner cartridge,” Arnett said. “But what’s most important to me is that we’re helping people who need it the most. I like to say that we’re turning tax consumers into tax payers.”

Doug Arnett, Director at Quality Connections, stands in front of a selection of remanufactured printer toner cartridges that the company makes in east Flagstaff. (by Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun)

Arizona's Quality ConnectionsTo Make $5M In Reman Toner Sales
Flagstaff-based Quality Connections makes connection with Arizona
By SUZANNE ADAMS-OCKRASSA Sun Staff Reporter

Quality Connections, one of Flagstaff’s leading employers of the disabled and disadvantaged, has won a sole-supplier contract to supply the State of Arizona with refurbished laser toner cartridges. 

The contract is expected to bring the company nearly $5 million annually in sales and could include additional sales to cities, counties and schools through the state’s co-op program, said Doug Arnett, office director. 

Approximately half a million of that total will be sales of refurbished laser cartridges. 

Quality Connections is a nonprofit organization that provides refurbished cartridges to Coconino County as well as hundreds of other customers online at QCoffice.com. 

It also offers a variety of 100,000 other office supplies at the site. 

The company has provided refurbished cartridges to Arizona for the last seven or eight years through the state’s set-aside contracting program, he said. 

The program gives companies that provide jobs or job training for people with disabilities, the disadvantaged or the incarcerated special consideration for state contracts. 

Quality Connections offers a variety of residential and day treatment, vocational and employment services for people with disabilities. 

“In doing so we create more possibilities for people who need it.” Arnett said. “Most states and the federal government have set-aside contract programs like this.” 

The difference with this set-aside contract is that it makes Quality Connections the sole provider of  refurbished laser cartridges to state offices, he said. The state has the option to renew the contract every year for up to five years. 

“I think this is the first such set-aside contract in the state,” Arnett said. “Our challenge is to get more state offices using these refurbished cartridges.”

Quality Connections currently offers 40 different types of brand-name refurbished printer cartridges, he said. 

“And we’re adding more to the list. We’ve got four new lines going in,” Arnett said. 

They also plan to add around 20 new jobs. It currently employees around 100 people and hopes to add an office in the Phoenix area soon. 

Most of the employees work for the company for only a short time, he said. The goal of the company is to assess a client’s skills and then provide them with the training and help they need to hold a professional job. 

Another part of Quality Connections’ mission is to promote environmentally sustainable products, such as refurbished toner cartridges and the recycling of electronics.

“It takes about three and a half quarts of oil to create one toner cartridge,” Arnett said. “But what’s most important to me is that we’re helping people who need it the most. I like to say that we’re turning tax consumers into tax payers.”

Doug Arnett, Director at Quality Connections, stands in front of a selection of remanufactured printer toner cartridges that the company makes in east Flagstaff. (by Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun)

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January 30, 2014 at 10:59 AM